Europe is the most peaceful region, with 13 of the top 20 most peaceful countries

War ravaged Afghanistan returns to the bottom of the index

Syria’s GPI score has fallen by 70% sine 2008

The total economic impact of containing violence is estimated to be US$9.46 trillion in 2012

The top three most peaceful countries are Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand.

With a newly elected government and a steady recovery from the 2011 turmoil, Libya had the biggest improvement in peace score since last year.

The three least peaceful countries are Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.

Syria’s score dropped by the largest margin, with the biggest ever score deterioration in the history of the GPI.

So if we can just get Iceland and Demark to invade each other, we’ll be number one!

The top 10 are:

Iceland 1.16

Denmark 1.21

NZ 1.24

Austria 1.25

Switzerland 1.27

Japan 1.29

Finland 1.30

Canada 1.31

Sweden 1.32

Belgium 1.34

Australia is 16th=, UK 44th. The summary for NZ is:

The majority of the GPI’s measures of safety and security suggest that New Zealand society is broadly harmonious; violent demonstrations are highly unlikely, while homicides and terrorist acts are very rare. The jailed population dropped, but not sufficiently to have an impact on the country’s overall GPI score; at 194 per 100,000, it remains higher than that of most OECD countries, notably Japan (55) and Switzerland (76). New Zealand’s political scene remained stable, with support for the prime minister, John Key, and the ruling centre-right National Party holding up amid confidence over the government’s handling of the economy, which grew by 2.5% in 2012. New Zealand maintained harmonious relations with its neighbours in 2012; links with Australia are underpinned by the 1983 Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement. The two governments are negotiating a protocol on a common border, pension portability and joint investment, all of which would move the countries closer to their goal of forming a single economic market

Related posts:

This entry was posted on Friday, June 14th, 2013 at 7:00 am and is filed under New Zealand.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

At least half of the top ten are constitutional monarchies. Most of those monarchs would be enthroned in a religious service .Those countries therefore either have an official state religion or semi official religion.Austria is traditionally very Catholic.The protestant work ethic is very strong in Switzerland.Finns probably the same.
The Icelandics are drunk and severly depressed for half the year so probably couldn’t be arsed about fighting other nations as long as the booze supply remains constant .

No one said anything about “religious”. The comment was about turning away from God, meaning the actual God. Someone can be very religious in a made-up religion because they want to assuage their conscience about ignoring what they know is true.

You also missed the fact that the comment was about violence in the womb. If number of abortions were counted the rankings would look quite different.

June 14th, 2013 at 9:09 am
Kea,
Tumours and cysts are collections of cells and fluid.
Foetuses are, without any shadow of doubt, human beings.
Every abortion stops a beating heart (but you already know that).

Yeah I just saw one riding its bike past the window !

The funny thing is the anti abortion people are often informed by religion. However the bible is full of actual babies being slaughtered on gods command.

Yeah, funny how the fundies believe that blastocysts, zygotes, embryos and fetuses should have absolute rights, which end abruptly when birth occurs. Then it’s the parents that have all the ‘rights’ and bugger all responsibilities, including the ‘right’ to hit and severely injure ‘their’ kids.

@ Kea,
My argument was biological, not religious (although I am a Christian).
And I cite Christopher Hitchens (atheist) as my authority.
Pretending that foetuses are no more than cells and fluids is simply delusional.

“Rape is a fact of life. We must ensure that it is safe, legal, and rare.

To do this, we should provide more rape clinics, discard restrictions on the age of the rape vessel, and ensure that a man can never be prosecuted for a rape.
We mustn’t shame men for their choice to rape women. It’s their bodies, after all. No one should tell them what they can and can’t do with their bodies.
As a woman, I could never understand what it’s like to be desperate and have no real choice but to rape. It’s not an easy decision, and we mustn’t shame men by protesting against rape. Those who protest against rape and intimidate men about their choice ought to be arrested.
We need special access zones so that men can rape without being harassed about what’s just a basic biological procedure.
Hotels that have a conscientious objection to men raping women in their rooms should have mandatory referral obligations, and all federal government properties should be forced to provide rape rooms.

Schools should also offer a curriculum that covers rape.”

Convinced?

As if having a uterus magically turns women into moral arbiters and men into slaves bereft of opinions.

It seems women’s rights includes the right to talk utter nonsense and be treated as a great thinker.

I can already hear the howls of outrage. How dare I compare rape, which is intrinsically wrong, to abortion, which some seem to think is a fundamental human right? I suppose I dare because I think for myself.

I don’t accept abortion as a right any more than I accept rape as a right.

Indeed, rape is easier to comprehend, because at least the rape victim isn’t usually one’s own child.

mandk, ok we agree on that much. But that does little to support your position.

The very religious countries do not have great human rights records and are not featuring near the top of the Global Peace Index. So I am naturally sceptical about religous folk claiming the sanctity of human life. Even more so given what is written in the bible and other religious texts !

Lutheranism is the official state religion of Iceland. The flag is a Christian symbol and I doubt like the rest of the Lutheran nordic states their human rights record lags that of the peaceful Islamic republics.

No baby delivered at 21 weeks would survive if it wasn’t for vast medical intervention i.e. playing god, nature would dictate that there was either something wrong with the foetus or it was endangering the mother.